Before you buy

The measurement everyone skips.

One room, one mistake, the numbers that decide it. Short pages you can read in the shop, before the sofa is already paid for.

• Halloween backyard ideas: decorate the yard in five steps

  Halloween ideas for a backyard with a deck and a pergola: five sets of outdoor decorations for about $100, the order to put them up in and where each piece goes.

• How to refresh a room on a budget

  What makes a room look tired is mostly the walls, the light and the fabrics, not the furniture. Where a cheap refresh starts, how much paint it takes, and what it cannot fix.

• Renovate a room one step at a time

  A room does not have to be renovated in one go. What to change first, which step can wait, and how to buy each piece so it still works at the next step.

• Room layout mistakes: what to check before the furniture goes in

  Five furniture placement mistakes that make a room awkward to live in, from drawers that hit the bed to doors that cannot open, and the measurements that catch them.

• Home office layout mistakes

  Five mistakes that turn a spare room into an awkward place to work: a shallow desk, no room behind the chair, a loud wall in front of the desk, glare and a floor full of cables.

• The sofa didn’t fit the alcove

  Which width of the recess and which width of the sofa have to be compared, and how much clearance to leave between them.